Animal monitoring systems including a bolus administered to reside in an animal may send encoded bolus sensor data to a remote processor for analysis. However, a remote processor may not be available to the user working with animals in the field or the remote processor may experience delay in analysis or loss of encoded sensor data due to incompatibility of the hardware or software with the bolus hardware or software, conflict with or competition with other programs executed by the remote processor, or inoperability of the remote processor.
There would be an advantage in an animal monitoring system that paired the bolus residing in the animal with a tag removably or permanently affixed to the animal's external surface allowing the user to access physiological data and environmental data relating to an animal and reprogram the operational parameters of the bolus or the tag by user interaction with the tag while in the field with the animal.